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ESPN had a final household coverage rating of 5.1 for the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, a 3 percent increase from last year’s 4.9. Household impressions were 4,888,964, up 5 percent from last year’s 4,657,433. Viewership 6,667,729, up 1 percent from last year’s 6,573,536. This race is ESPN’s most-viewed auto race ever. The NASCAR Nationwide Series from IRP event was on ESPN and had a final rating of 1.5, up 6 percent from last year’s 1.4 on ESPN2. For NNS season on cable (ESPN and ESPN2), they are up 17 percent from last year (not including the California race that was rain-delayed and run on Monday). This report came from ESPN.

That’s the good news. Now here’s the bad news. The fans and Tony George of IMS are ripping both NASCAR and Goodyear for the tire debacle in the Allstate 400. Competition yellow flags came out almost every ten laps until the race went checkered. When something similar happened at The Brickyard during a F1 event, Michelin coughed up some ticket deals to smooth over the fans and George for the following year. We don’t expect Goodyear to do the same thing as Michelin

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The Women in the Winner’s Circle Foundation today announced the winners of its Leadership Award, the Mildred Marcum Pioneer Award, the USAC Kara Hendrick Spirit Award, and the Opportunity Award. The honorees were recognized at the Foundation’s 6th annual Women in the Winner’s Circle luncheon held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

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Last weekend’s TD Banknorth Oxford 250 had 121 pre-race entries (according to its webpage) at Oxford Plains Speedway in western Maine. That’s a very impressive number. But, last Sunday only 88 of them showed up. That wasn’t a surprise as some teams file an entry early just in case they have the assets to race in a major event like the 250. And especially if there was no fee for an early entry.

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The TNT TV ratings match last year’s numbers. Final Nielsen Media Research numbers show that TNT’s coverage of six NASCAR Sprint Cup races this season matched its ratings from 2007 with one big gain and one big loss, Street & Smith’s Sports Business Daily reports. The network averaged a 4.2 coverage area rating and 5.7 million viewers for the six events, the Daily reports. Its first race this year, the Pocono 500 at Pocono Raceway, earned a 4.6 coverage rating, up 27.8 percent from last year, but it was the only TNT event to see a ratings increase. The Daily reports that three of the next five races declined from ‘07. This report came from StockCarGazette.com.

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As the time nears for ESPN’s coverage of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, the new Monday roundtable edition of ESPN2’s NASCAR Now continues to gain momentum with NASCAR fans looking for in-depth analysis of their favorite sport.

ESPN, which covers the NASCAR Nationwide Series all season, will televise the final 17 races of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series beginning with the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard on July 27 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Included will be all 10 races in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup televised by ESPN on ABC.

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With gas prices reaching record highs, home values plummeting and nest eggs shrinking, too many of us feel like the American Dream is fading. But on July 13 at 7 p.m. ET, CNBC’s Jim Cramer reminds viewers that the American Dream is still very much alive and that he, himself, is living proof. In this one-hour NBC Special, “The American Dream with Jim Cramer,” one of the best minds on Wall Street and the host of “Mad Money w/Jim Cramer” heads to NASCAR’S Pit Road to talk straight about the economy, investing and helping Americans unlock the wealth of money-making opportunities everywhere, even in their favorite pastime.

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At a recent meeting of a group of motorsports types in New England, the subject of Detroit automakers involvement in motorsports, particularly NASCAR, was among various things discussed. It was the opinion, of those in the know, that NASCAR could feel the impact of the Big Three automakers who must reinventing themselves in order to survive. We’ve also seen some news reports regarding this. In all likelihood expect to see budgets slashed of the top NASCAR teams who have deals with Chevy, Ford and Dodge. Because sales of new vehicles are not expected to rebound until the price of oil settles down. With $5 per gallon of regular looming by Labor Day weekend, the buying public is very leery of making a major purchase of a new vehicle.

According to reports on ESPN, NASCAR teams are really feeling the pinch due to the high cost of fuel. Also, funding NASCAR teams have risen from $10-$15 million to over $20-$25 million due to increases especially driver salaries. “We could see six or so teams shut down if they are not funded. Nobody is going to run this out of their own pocket for too long, myself included, so it is a serious situation, ” said team principal Doug Yates, owner of Yates Racing.

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NASCAR Sprint Cup racing posted a 3.3/9 (5.1 mill.) that Sunday for racing from Michigan on TNT. In its first fair comparison to last year (last week’s comparison was impacted by rain in 2007), NASCAR on TNT was flat among all Homes (3.3) and down among M18-34 (-13 percent), M18-49 (-8 percent), and average audience (-3 percent).This report came from TNT PR and the Jayski.com webpage.

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